What are the preferences of health care professionals in Germany regarding fully liquid, ready-to-use hexavalent pediatric vaccine versus hexavalent pediatric vaccine that needs reconstitution?

Andrew J Lloyd,1 Beenish Nafees,1 Eddy Ziani,2 Laurence Nicolas,2 Beth Alice Fordham,1 Benoit Soubeyrand,2 Christoph Bornhöft3 1Patient Reported Outcomes, ICON Plc, Oxford, UK; 2Medical Affairs, Sanofi Pasteur MSD, Lyon, France; 3Practice for Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, Bensheim, Germany Abstract: Diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis (DTaP) based combined vaccines have led to significant reduction in incidence of several serious pediatric infectious diseases. A new, fully liquid combined hexavalent vaccine has been introduced and has been shown to reduce administration time. This fully liquid vaccine may also be simpler to administer and could reduce handling errors. The present study was designed to understand the value that health care providers (HCPs) place on aspects of injection devices for combined hexavalent vaccine programs in Germany. A discrete choice experiment (DCE) was designed to elicit the views of HCPs regarding hexavalent vaccines. The key attributes of injection devices were identified through a focused literature search and interviews with HCPs. Five key attributes, each with two or three levels were described which included: type of device, experience of this hexavalent vaccine on the German market, preparation time, probability of handling errors, and dosage errors. Physicians (n=150) and nurses (n=150) who administered hexavalent vaccines in Germany completed the survey. Choice data were analyzed using the conditional logit procedure. All attributes were significant and important independent influences on physicians’ and nurses’ choices. Reducing any “probability of dosage errors” was the most important attribute. Both physicians and nurses had a strong preference to reduce preparation time. All other things equal both groups also significantly preferred a fully liquid hexavalent vaccine. They also preferred vaccines that had been on the market for a few years compared to ones that